I was going to use my recently designed pattern to print some cards, but I accidentally set the paper orientation in the wrong direction, ending up with the design cropped.

Oh well, I thought, at least I could make it into a smaller, square card. But it just doesn’t look that nice anymore…

And then, I remember seeing some collages of patterns and photographs somewhere. Maybe I could try that too! So I found a photograph I took in Paris 2 years ago, did some photoshopping and printed it on top of the pattern, intentionally in the same way that I printed the pattern.

And…voilà! Just like when I first saw the photos developed from my toy cameras, I was quite surprised that the result turned out to be great! I absolutely love this kind of “accidental beauty!”

Next time I gotta make this bigger and hang it on my wall :D

Finally, letterpress is no longer just something I’ve seen in shops or read in books, but something I’ve actually done!

This past Sunday, I signed up for a letterpress workshop at a local letterpress studio–Modus. From typesetting to lock-up to operating the platen press, I had the opportunity to participate in the whole process of letterpress printing. It isn’t as easy as it may seem, and it involves a lot of patience and practice.

When I was typesetting the metal types, I thought of how people has used this method to print for centuries. And then I thought the way we type with keyboard and designing layouts with InDesign…. True, today we can save lots of time and money in printing, and make everything line up perfectly and every print outs identical, but is it necessarily better? And yes, letterpress printing can be quite tedious sometimes, and the result isn’t consistent, but I think we appreciate the crafty feeling and imperfectness that automated machines can’t achieve.

When I said tedious, it really was, such as putting the fonts together and aligning them with small metal pieces; “locking-up” the type with wooden blocks (called “furniture”) and quoins (expansion devices) into a metal frame (“chase”), and making sure it’s not too loose and not too tight; and aligning artwork on the printing plate. You really need to be detail oriented and VERY patient, otherwise you might need to start all over again.

Despite all the challenges, I still managed to print out two kinds of cards – a Valentine’s Day card and a contact card – without any major “disasters.” Now I love letterpress even more!

❉ Special thanks to Manna, the owner of Modus and instructor of the workshop.

❈ 留言的人有機會拿到 Bee Mine 情人節卡喔! 數量有限, 請在 2/7 之前寄給我妳的住址: annie[at]lemonni[dot]com